In a series of 2 papers I worked with one of my first mentors, Dr. Filiz Onat, and her team to elucidate the relationship between the alpha-2 receptor and the epileptogenesis on genetic absence epilepsy rats (GAERS).

In the first paper published in Frontiers in Neurology, we studied the epileptogenesis in GAERS pups. We found that alpha-2 agonistic activity of dexmedetomidine induces an initial unilateral spike-wave discharges (SWD), a tell-tale finding of absence epilepsy. My contribution to this study was to analyze the EEG data to show that the unilateral 1.75Hz power activity during SWDs was stronger in left hemisphere than right.

In the second paper published in Epilepsia Open, we built on the idea of alpha-2 receptor agonism to initiate absence seizures. We showed that injection of dexmedetomidine triggered an absence status-like activity characterized by strong delta power and attenuated 7 Hz harmonics, which can be blocked by atipamezole.

Of course, both studies were spearheaded by Dr. Melis Yavuz, a champion of basic research on absence epilepsy, who gracefully included me in these projects.

Looking forward to advancing this line of research! Hold tight…